Terry Richard/The OregonianThis Alaska license plate was on a vehicle parked in inner southeast Portland. I wonder if the Oregon Legislature is as ready with its 150th anniversary plate as Alaska is for its 50th, coincidentally both in 2009.

I've found our modern-day Ellis Island. It looks to me like the inner southeast neighborhoods of Buckman and Sunnyside are the settling place for many new arrivals to Portland.

The back streets between Hawthorne Boulevard and Belmont Street have long been my bicycle route home. I've always noticed lots of out-of-state license plates on cars parked in those neighborhoods.

I usually ride the Lincoln/Harrison corridor to work, to downtown from Mount Tabor, and notice a lot fewer out-of-state plates.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to make a formal count last Sunday morning. I had also done this the year before, so I expected to find license plates from about 40 states.

I wasn't disappointed, because I noted license plates from 38 states, after about an hour of looking, on vehicles parked mostly along Madison, Main, Salmon, Taylor and Yamhill streets, between 12th and 49th avenues. Once you reach 49th, the frequency dwindles dramatically.

I suspect this is a popular landing spot for newcomers to Portland because it's close to downtown and transit, is walkable to two eclectic shopping districts (Hawthorne and Belmont) and, most importantly, is filled with small to mid-size apartment complexes and lots of big old houses (many of which are exceedingly grand and well maintained). Also, there are few garages, so it's easy to inventory license plates of vehicles parked on the streets.

Inner southeast Portland may just be a better neighborhood from where so many newcomers have apparently moved.

Obviously, Oregon licenses were far and away the most numerous. Washington was well-represented, so was California. Next most frequent after the West Coast states appeared to be New York, though I wasn't about to get bogged down counting the number from each state. After that, Montana, Texas, Idaho, Colorado, Michigan and Massachusetts were most common.

It made me feel like I was walking through the parking lot at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, another magnet for numerous state license plates.

The following morning, I noticed No. 39, Louisiana, then, the next day, Hawaii, No. 40, and North Dakota, No. 41. On Wednesday, I hit the Connecticut jackpot, No. 42, with four sightings on the way to work. I also saw one U.S. Government plate, plus one from Washington, D.C. Within a week of looking, I also had spotted Kentucky and South Dakota, 44 states total.

The states I didn't find were Arkansas, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and South Carolina.

Terry Richard/The OregonianThere's a small colony of Maine ex-pats around S.E. Main Street and 14th Avenue.

One of the unusual sightings turned out to be Maine, about as far away as you can drive to Portland and still be in the U.S. After I spotted a Maine plate parked on S.E. Main and 14th, I quickly saw three more within two blocks.

I saw no Canadian plates on this scouting mission.

In the past, I've seen British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta, plus Arkansas, Rhode Island, Maryland and South Carolina. I suspect the toughest ones to find will be West Virginia and Delaware, but I will keep looking.